SLAMMED By Colleen Hoover- BOOK REVIEW

Last month this book was my pick of the month because I was planning on writing a review on it. The significance of this book is that this was the debut

novel of the New York best-selling author Colleen Hoover (I know, not many authors have escaped the claws of New York best sellers list, Lol) . Some of her famous books are- It Ends with Us, Ugly Love, November 9, etc. she is a good writer, mostly writes romance.

Anyway, when I suggested Slammed as the read of the month earlier, I liked the book because I had read it more than year ago. I remembered the good things about the book and forgot all the flaws. But just to write this blog I re-read it and found the short comings that I probably hadn’t even noticed the first time I read it. Hence, I’ll be elaborating on both, the flaws and the fine points of this book. Lets begin.

Brief on the story-

So, this book follows the life of an 18 years old Layken, AKA Lake, and her family which consists of her mom and her little brother Kel. After her father’s death they move from Texas to Detroit in Michigan because its more affordable, where she meets her neighbor called Will who’s 21, who’s mere presence leaves her flustered and his passion for slam poetry fascinates her to no limits. Sounds cliché, I know. But aren’t all romance novels cliché? Moving on…

At first, she has a very worn-out and dejected attitude towards Michigan and life in general because come on, the girl just lost her father and had to move to whole new state leaving an entire life behind. However, after meeting Will she starts to feel much better. Now because this is a spoiler free review, I’d rather not write any more than this but trust me, there’s more to it. This novel has some good twists and it manages to keep you gripped just enough. Lets get to the positive and negative points of the book.

POSITIVE POINTS-

· This novel had these sweet, little details that enabled a better connection with the characters like how the little brother, Kel, who’s nine tries to learn new words by asking layken what they mean and pronouncing them wrong. He calls lasagna basagna, and that’s something they cook when there’s some sad news, as if to nullify the impact of things going south.

I also really liked the relation Lake and Kel share being nine years apart. Layken is quite caring and extremely responsible towards her brother and her brother is also not as big a pain as siblings usually are which makes their bond likable and cute.

· Her mom’s a likable character too. She’s tough, surprisingly not depressing at all considering that she lost her husband seven months ago in the story. She’s collected and a pretty cool mom who gives great dating advice. They share a very adorable mother-daughter bond.

· It has a nice poetic touch. During the course of this story there will be a decent number of poetries as one of the main elements of the story is Slam poetry but its very much bearable. It doesn’t drive the story. It won’t bother you while reading. Besides some of the poetries are actually pretty good.

· The twists in the Slammed are overall good. The main twist is convincing and changes the course of the novel entirely.

· The book has a good and satisfying ending with least drama. During reading the book you might feel slightly inspired to not take life for granted. It doesn’t fail to leave you with a good feeling. A lesson that can be drawn from this novel would be that storms don’t last forever so, hold on.

NEGATIVE POINTS/ FLAWS:

· It was after reading it the second time that I realized that the initial few chapters are too cheesy to be read the second time. After Lake’s encounter with Will things start to go down the cheesy lane which reflects the juvenile writing of the author because of the book being her debut novel. The romance will make you wince at times. Its unconvincing how quickly they like each other so much and feel a ‘connection’ in spite of knowing each other for just two days.

· Instead of it being two days, if Hoover had written it to be over the span of summer, a major flaw in the novel wouldn’t be there. On many instances she has written how much they mean to each other but it kind of makes you laugh when

you recall that that’s after just two days of decent interaction. The depth in their relationship seems to come from nowhere. It makes their love sort of dissatisfying some times.

The flirting in the first few chapters is down right cringey. It happens to come out of nowhere, when you least expect it and its idiotic at places. For example, you don’t brush your hand through someone’s shirt’s collar to check their shoulder wound out of the blue, in the middle of a conversation when you have known them for less than 48 hours. It’s irrelevant and dumb.

Apart from these, there’s nothing wrong with the novel. Its actually a good book, not gonna lie. It gets quite engrossing, emotional and fun to read. Its just the first few chapters that are filled with all that cringe. Rest of the book is pretty enjoyable. A good read I would say and some of you who are interested in writing, as in writing fiction, it might be useful to read debuts by famous authors like this. Considering this is a debut, it is a pleasurable read. Goodreads has rated it as a solid 4.2/5. I’ll give it a 4/5. I personally go only by the rating Goodreads gives, it works pretty fine for me and I consider any book of 4 or above rating to be a decent read.

Have fun reading Slammed by Colleen Hoover! Don't forget to like this post and subscribe for the monthly posts. Let me know what you think if this review by dropping a line below. Feel free to drop your suggestions!